Car-fender



(No Model.)

0-. E. BROWN & G. H. SMITH. GAR FENDER.

Patented Dec. 7, 1897 UNITED STATES,

CARL E. BROWN, OF COLUMBUS,

' PATENT Enron,

AND GEORGE H. SMITH, or SANTA FE, omo.

CAR-FENDER- SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters iIPatent No. 594,851, dated December 7, 1897. Application filed I'ebruary' z i, 1897. Serial No. 624,332. (N 0 model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CARL E. BROWN, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin, and GEORGE H. SMITH, residing at Santa F, in the county of Logan, State of Ohio, citizens of the United States, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Car- Fenders, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

Our invention relates to a new and useful improvement in car-fenders and is what we term a toboggan-fender, and has for its object to provide a simple, cheap, and effective device which may be readily attached to one end of a car or detached therefrom and placed upon the opposite end thereof and which will automatically come into play when coming in.

contact with an obstruction, such as a person, so as to scoop up said person and prevent the possibility of the car passing over the person.

Another object of our invention is to so protect the rigid parts of the fender as to avoid injuring a person thrust within the fender by coming in contact with these rigid parts and also to put under the control of the motorman .the operationof the fender, so as to quickly bring it into active position before striking an obstruction should the motorman see said obstruction before it is struck.

With these ends in view this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of elements hereinafter set forth and then specifically designated by the claims.

In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains may understand how to make and use the same, the construction and operation will now be described in detail,referrin g to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in Which Figure 1 is a front view of a car having our improved fender applied thereto, the netting being omitted, so as to better illustrate the construction thereof Fig. 2, a side view of one end of the car, showing ourimprovement in section, a portion of the dashboard being broken away, so as to illustrate the tripping mechanism; and Fig. 3, a perspective of the netting;

In carrying out our invention ashere embodied we provide a supporter A,which consists of a vertical member 13, having a rightangular extension Bformed at its lower end, and a cross-bar with two depending arms at the lower end thereof, the vertical member being hinged at a to the cross-bar and the vertical member being adapted to fit within the clamp or bracket 0. The bracket is bolted to the front of the dashboard,as clearly shown, and the supporter has notches D cut in the offset thereof, as shown in Fig. 1, so that when it is necessary to remove the supporter and fender carried thereby this may be accomplished by lifting it vertically until the notches D have passed above the clamp, as will be readily understood. As a further means for securing this supporter rigidly in position cleats E are arranged to embrace the depending sections of the supporter, thereby preven tingany sidewise movement thereof.

A cross-bar F is secured to the upper end of the supporter, the latter being turned outward for this purpose, and from each end of this bar projects downward a rod G, provided with a bearing H at its lower end, and in these two bearings is journaled the rear rod of the fenderframe I. This frame is somewhat wider at its outer end than at the rear, and the rear bar thereof also passes through the lower'ends of the supporter, as indicated at J, thus rendering the attachment of the fender-frame to the supporter and rods G eX- ceedingly rigid, while permitting its outer end to swing upward when occasion requires. The fender-frame is locked in its normal position by means of the toggle-jointed levers K, so that it may not be forced upward when coming in contact with an obstruction, and yet when it isdesired to swing the frame upward it is necessary to break the togglejoints to accomplish this result. The outer end of the fender-frame is also supported by the ropes L, which are attached thereto and led upward and rearward and attached at M to the cross-bar F. The fender-frame has hinged to its front cross-rod a platform or pan N, and in attaching this platform to the front rod we prefer that it be turned upward, as

clearly shown in Fig. 2, in order that it may be readily slid over the road-bed or paving when in contact therewith after the manner of a toboggan. This platform is also cut away at the rear portion thereof, as indicated at 0, so that when the fender-frame is turned upward out of use this cut-away portion will permit of the projection of the draw-bar in order that two cars may be coupled together, and the rear portion of the platform is supported by the chains P, or, if found desirable in practice, may be supported by springs in order that when a person is thrust thereon it will swing downward and come in contact with the road-bed, so as to sustain the weight of the person without injury to the platform, thus permitting the platform to be made of exceedingly light material and yet effectually accomplish its purpose.

All of the rigid parts of the fender are protected by the placing of the netting Q thereover, and the lower portion R of this netting is attached at its front edge to the front crossrod of the fendenframe and is left sufficiently slack to slightly bag, while the sides and back thereof are drawn taut by the cords or springs S being attached to the side rods of the fender-frame. By this arrangement it will be seen that a person thrust within the fender will be caught by the netting and the impact of the blow considerably modified by those portions of the netting which are taut, as well as the bottom portion thereof,'which is somewhat slack, the object of the latter being to permit the person to finally rest upon the platform.

In practice the fender is held at the proper distance from the road-bed to prevent the front end thereof comingin contact with said road-bed by the oscillation of the car, andthis is accomplished by the latch T, which is pivoted at U and provided with a suitable spring for causingits nose to project forward beneath the extension B in the supporter, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, while the inner end of this latch projects through the dashboard and in easy access of the foot of the motorman, so that by pressing thereon the nose of the latch will be withdrawn from the supporter and thereby permit said supporter and the fender carried thereby to drop sufficiently to bring the front cross-rod of the fenderframe into contact with the road-bed, as will be readily understood. Now after the fender has thus been dropped it is essential that it be held in this position against rotating upward when coming in contact with an obstruction,such as a person,and this is accomplished by the nose of the latch entering the hole V and locking the supporter in its depressed position.

From this it will be seen that the car can under no circumstances pass over a person, but the fender will scoop up such a person and safely carry him within the netting upon the platform until the car can be stopped and the person removed.

Should the motor-man fail to see the person in time to trip the fender and bring it into active position, it is desirable that the fender will automatically be tripped when coming in contact with aperson, and this we accomplish by giving to the supporter a certain amount of play in its bearings, and when the front rod of the fender strikes a person or other obstruction the frame is forced backward, the lower part of the frame-supporter Ais forced against the lugs W on the buffer, which act as a fulcrum, while the lower part of the framesupporte'r serves as a lever, and as the upper and lower parts of the supporter are hinged at a the upper part of the supporter, or, rather, the part which rests upon the latch,is thrown slightly forward and is dislodged from the nose of the latcl1,wl1ieh would permit the fender to drop to its active position, where it would be looked, as before de scribed. Thus any carelessness of the motorman would in no instance cause the loss of life or serious injury to a person, since the fender would automatically be brought into proper position to scoop up the person struck. A suitable hook X is provided upon the dashboard to secure the fender-frame when its outer end is swung upward out of activity, thereby permitting two cars to be coupled together without interference.

hen the fender is in active service and the front rod of same is pressed firmly to the road-bed, there is suflicient spring in the forward half of the side rods of frame I in connection with that in rods G to allow for any up-and-down motion or oscillation of the car, which, although slight when the car is being brought to a stop, must be taken into consideration in the construction of a fender for its successful operation.

A fender made in accordance with our improvement while being exceedingly effective in its operations is both simple in construction and cheap of manufacture and maybe applied to any form of car, and the fact that it may be quickly removed from one end and applied to another without the use of wrenches or other tools obviates the necessity of applying two fenders to one car even though the car runs in both directions at different times. If found desirable in practice, a rubber cushion may be applied to the front cross-rod of the fender-frame to break the force of the blow between this rod and a person, and if used should be'so applied as not to interfere with the free sliding of the rod upon the road-bed.

e are aware that slight modifications might be made in the construction here shown and described without departing from the spirit of our invention, and therefore we do not wish to be limited to the exact details of such construction.

Having thus fully described this invention, what is claimed as new and useful is l. Acar-fenderconsisting of asuitable sup port, a fender-frame, and a platform hinged to the front portion of said frame so as to be drawn over the road-bed when in active use,

as specified.

2. In a car-fender, a supporter detachably secured to the end of a car, a bar attached to said supporter, rods depending from said bar, a fender-frame hinged to said rods and supporter, toggle levers for locking the fender-frame in its normal position, a platform hinged to the front portion of the fenderframe and adapted to be drawn over the roadbed when in activity, and a netting for protecting the rigid portions of the device, as specified.

3. In a car-fender, a supporter, means for securing said supporter to one end of a car, a cross-bar carried by said supporter, rods depending from said bar, a fender-frame journaled to said rods and supporter, toggle-levers for looking the fender-frame in 'its normal position, ropes L for supporting the outer end of the fender-frame, a platform hinged to the front cross-rod of said frame, the outer end of said platform being turned upward after the manner of a toboggan, means for supporting the rear end of the platform, a netting so attached to the fender as to have its back and sides taut, while the bottom thereof is slack,and means for dropping the fender into activity, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a car-fender, a supporter slidably secured to the end of a car, a cross-bar hinged to the lower end of the supporter, a latch normally holding said supporter elevated, and a fender-frame carried by the support and crossbar, substantially as described.

5. In combination withafender of the character described, a supporter to which said fender is attached a bracket carried by the car for holding said supporter, a spring-actuating latch adapted to hold said supporter in its elevated position and permit it to bedropped, either by the action of the motorman or by the vertical member of the sup porter B being thrown forward and dislodged from its support on nose of said latch, upon the front rod of the fender striking an obstruction, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

6. In combination with a fender of the character described, principles for automatic action consisting of the supporter being hinged at a, so that when the front rod of fender strikes an obstruction the frame will be forced backward and by means of the lower portion of the supporter operating as a lever against the lugs V which act as a fulcrum, the lower part of vertical member B will be thrown sufficiently forward so as to become dislodged from its support upon the latch, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

'7. In a car-fender, a supporter consisting of a vertical member, a right-angular extension on the lower end thereof, a cross-bar hinged to the extension, arms depending from the cross-bar, said supporter being slidably secured on the end of a car, a spring-pressed latch extending forward under the right-angular extension and holding the supporter.

normally elevated, and the fulcrum-point arranged back of the depending arms, and a fender-frame carried by the supporter, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto affixed our signatures in the presence of the subscribing witnesses.

CARL E. BROWN. GEORGE I-I. SMITH.

Witnesses to signature of Carl E. Brown:

JOHN COURTRIGHT, RosE D. BROWN.

Witnesses to signature of George H. Smith:

SARAH A. TURNER, GEORGE E. LINDER. 

